My Cup Runneth Over 2

Rev. Lauri Ferring

My Cup Runneth Over • Sermon • Submitted 2 months ago • Presented 2 months ago

Luke 22:7–27

Lent

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A close week at Jesus' final week and what that means for us.

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Opening Scripture:

Psalm 22:1–11 NIV

1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? 2 My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest. 3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the one Israel praises. 4 In you our ancestors put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them. 5 To you they cried out and were saved; in you they trusted and were not put to shame. 6 But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by everyone, despised by the people. 7 All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads. 8 “He trusts in the Lord,” they say, “let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.” 9 Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast. 10 From birth I was cast on you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God. 11 Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help.

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My Cup Runneth Over

There is not much we know about Judas. We do know that he was trusted by everyone enough to be assigned the responsibility of the treasury for Jesus and His disciples. Yet, there are places that hint that he perhaps pilfered from the funds, so he was not as trustworthy as they all believed. When Jesus chose His disciples, we know God directed Him. We also know that He knew that one would eventually betray Him. Did He know which one all along or did God disclose that to Him later? We will never know this side of heaven, however, I doubt it mattered. When they sat around the table the night of the Last Supper, Jesus did know. Yet, Jesus greeted him with a kiss, just as he did each of the disciples that night as was the custom. Jesus also washed his feet and served him the Passover/Communion elements. And Jesus never disclosed his identity which would have surely put him in jeopardy with the other disciples. More than what Jesus was thinking, I wonder what Judas was thinking? He had ever chance to look at Jesus’ loving expression and sinless life and change his mind, but he didn’t.

He was so trusted by the others, that when Jesus directed him to go do what he had to do, the others just assumed there was some business he had to take care of for the group. Not a single one expected it to be Judas.

Of course, the others had their own issues going on. Think about it a moment. Jesus bring them to this place, incognito to protect them. You will notice in a moment that Jesus does not disclose where they are to have the supper. He only tells Peter and John and then Jesus does not give an address. He gives them direction to look for a certain man carrying a water jar, which is unusual in itself as this was considered women’s work. Then they were to follow him in order to discover the place where they would prepare the meal. Jesus knew that if the place of their dinner was known, His arrest would most likely occur before it was time. So, Jesus was vague on purpose.

As they arrived, Jesus knew exactly how that evening would end. He was about to do the most selfless act that anyone has ever done, yet around Him, His companions are so busy discussing whose position was most important. Perhaps it was the seating at the table that brought his argument on. The Romans put great emphasis on seating at tables based on importance.

However, despite the fretting that I am sure Judas was doing, and the arguing among the other disciples, Jesus takes the lesser role. He washes their dirty feet. He serves them the meal, and He declares a new Covenant. This is the last required Passover because the ultimate lamb is about to be slain. Jesus is that lamb. Now, instead of Passover, Christians celebrate Communion. Remembering what Jesus did for each of us by dying on the cross. We partake of the elements, participating with His sacrifice, and we look forward to the day when He will return. These are all the subjects of today’s sermon.

Please stand with me as I read this account.

Luke 22:7–27 CSB

7 Then the Day of Unleavened Bread came when the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. 8 Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.” 9 “Where do you want us to prepare it?” they asked him. 10 “Listen,” he said to them, “when you’ve entered the city, a man carrying a water jug will meet you. Follow him into the house he enters. 11 Tell the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks you, “Where is the guest room where I can eat the Passover with my disciples?” ’ 12 Then he will show you a large, furnished room upstairs. Make the preparations there.” 13 So they went and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover. 14 When the hour came, he reclined at the table, and the apostles with him. 15 Then he said to them, “I have fervently desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” 17 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he said, “Take this and share it among yourselves. 18 For I tell you, from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” 19 And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 In the same way he also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. 21 But look, the hand of the one betraying me is at the table with me. 22 For the Son of Man will go away as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed!” 23 So they began to argue among themselves which of them it could be who was going to do it. 24 Then a dispute also arose among them about who should be considered the greatest. 25 But he said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who have authority over them have themselves called ‘Benefactors.’ 26 It is not to be like that among you. On the contrary, whoever is greatest among you should become like the youngest, and whoever leads, like the one serving. 27 For who is greater, the one at the table or the one serving? Isn’t it the one at the table? But I am among you as the one who serves.

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I. Preparation and Sacrifice, Luke 22:7-27

In Jewish tradition, the Passover festival has many elaborate parts to remind the people of their need for God and their deliverance from Egypt. On the evening of Passover, the Passover lamb is slaughtered and eaten with bitter herbs and matzo.

In Luke’s Gospel, the correlation between Jesus and the Passover lamb becomes clearer after reading today’s passage. In this part of Jesus’s journey, he asked his disciples to prepare for the Passover meal.

Once the meal was prepared, Jesus sat and ate with his disciples one last time before he was betrayed and killed. We see in this story that not only were they walking through the traditions of Passover, but they were also sitting at dinner with a truly innocent sacrificial Lamb–Jesus.

Today we’re going to focus on the sacrifice Christ made and how that serves as an example for us. We will also spend a little time reflecting on the tradition of Communion and what it means when we celebrate the sacrament together.

There are many things we could focus on in this passage, but there are only three specific topics I want us to take note of today. The first is that...

A. God Equips the Called, Luke 22:7-13

We talked a lot about obedience and sacrifice last week. One thing we can be assured of is that God never calls us somewhere where He hasn’t already been. He also works to prepare the way. We can always be assured that...

1. When God calls us to do something, God goes ahead of us to help prepare our way.

Jesus told the disciples exactly where to go and whom to talk to in order to find a space for the Passover meal. They would still have a lot of work to set up and prepare the meal, but Jesus handled the biggest unknown (where to set up).

Jesus had many followers. Jesus knew where the most secure place was. Jesus also disclosed it in an unusual way. As I said earlier, this provided protection. The religious leaders of the day had long before this decided that Jesus had to be killed. However, Jesus was popular with the people. They needed a quiet location where they could arrest Him without being seen by others. In the evening, inside a building like this, they could have pulled it off, but it was not time yet. Jesus had some final things to teach His disciples. So He instructs them to look for a man carrying a water jar. This would be easy to spot as this was an unusual occurrence. It was believed to be women’s work to carry water and men avoided such tasks.

2. God doesn’t send us out into the world without any guidance or providence.

He always goes before us paving our way. The saints in this room could probably share story after story about times when God provided exactly what was needed when it was needed. Remembering those stories helps shore up our faith when we encounter new trials.

Just last week, I had shared about the home God provided for me in Nampa. I was one week away from being homeless and jobless, when I received a call from the church in Nampa. They asked when I could begin the position as their children’s pastor. They had been without for a while and were excited when I said I could be there in a week. That same day I looked for a house to buy and found a beautiful home. As my realtor and I were looking at it, the builder came by. The house was newly constructed in a new subdivision. It was supposed to be an open house but when my realtor and I arrived no one was there. The contractor was heading home from another job in the subdivision and he noticed our car, but also noticed that the realtor who was conducting the open house was gone. He stopped in to see if he could help. My realtor, who was a Christian from the church that had just hired me, suddenly felt inspired to ask what the chances were of closing within the week? The builder laughed and said he had never had that happen before but this could be the time it could. Someone had bought the place and all the paperwork was done, but the buyer never showed up at the closing. All they needed to do was change the buyers name. Everything else was done. The next morning before leaving town, I went to the bank and filled out loan papers. I gave the realtor a power of attorney to sign for me at the closing. I flew out Monday for California, where I finished my packing and loaded my moving truck. The realtor signed the closing papers on Thursday and I and my truck pulled into the house driveway Friday night at 6 p.m. It was the smoothest move I had ever had. Both realtors, (i.e. the sellers and mine) said they had never seen the likes of it.

You can trust that if God is calling you somewhere, He will take care of the details and equip you in every way needed. However,

B. Our Preparation Also Matters, Luke 22:14-22

God prepares things ahead of us, but there are still tasks we are required to do. I spoke a little on this a few weeks ago. God is a team player. There are certain things we are required to do. When Jesus fed the 5,000, He directed the disciples to find out what food was among the people. They found the boy with fish and loaves. It was not much. They were sceptical but Jesus wasn’t. But note what He did next. He broke it and gave some to each disciple instructing them to feed the people. It was then up to the disciples in faith, to continue to tear their portion apart and distribute it to the people. God provided a boy with fish and loaves. Jesus gave the blessing and provide the miracle, but the miracle would never have been evident if the disciples and looked at their portion and declared it wasn’t enough and refused to serve the people.

In this situation found in our text, John and Peter are called on to make...

1. Preparation for Passover included removing any trace of yeast (which was symbolic of sin).

From that point, it was John and Peter’s job to buy a lamb, take it to be slaughtered, dress it for cooking, preparing the other food items, and the all important job of cleaning the place thoroughly to make sure there was no yeast to be found. This was an important practice as yeast represented sin, and all sin was to be symbolically removed from the premises before conducting the Passover meal.

On a side note here, one thing that confuses people is that according to the gospel of John, the chief priests partook of Passover at a later time. This is easily explained, but I will not go into all the detail but leave it at this. There was the Jewish calendar and a Roman calendar. Jesus and the disciples observed the traditional Passover based on the Jewish calendar, perfectly aligned with the Old Testament timing. The Jewish leaders had capitulated to the later Roman calendar which was slightly different. So, they held their Passover a day later. This of course is one more way we find how they had followed worldly practices instead of those mandated by God.

But back to our account, Peter and John had the responsibility to clean the premises for all the disciples. Now days, we no longer have Passover meals, at least not normally. We sometimes have had them to learn from them. However, we now participate in Communion instead of Passover. However...

2. We need to take Communion with prepared hearts as well.

It is our responsibility to prepare our own hearts. We must ask God to reveal any sin that is in our hearts and lives. In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul deals with a church that has not been doing so. Paul teaches us the importance of this.

1 Corinthians 11:27–29 NASB95

27 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. 28 But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.

3. If we find any trace of sin in our lives, we need to repent of it and receive God’s grace.

When we’ve done these things, our hearts are ready for Communion with God and the church. Whenever we partake of Communion, we are joined in fellowship with God and the Church universal. It is not a denomination practice, but it is all God’s church which consists of any who have placed their faith in Christ and are following in the faith. I can assure you it will consist of people of various denominations.

The final point I want to discuss from this text today is...

C. The Greatest in God’s Kingdom, Luke 22:22-27

I cannot help but ache in my heart for Jesus in this moment. His heart would have been so full and He had so much to share with His disciples in this moment. If you are using the Lent devotional provided, you will be reading all His words shared in this moment this week. But...

1. While Jesus was preparing to sacrificehis life for everyone, the disciples were discussing among themselves which of them was the greatest.

They knew something was going to happen. Although Jesus spoke about what was coming in plain language, they still didn’t understand exactly what. They weren’t preparing for Jesus to sacrifice himself but instead for a triumphant victory (although, in the end, as we know, it would be both).

If only they had understood, I a sure their response would have been much different. However, in this moment,

2. The disciples were grasping for power and position.

All too often, that’s what we do today. We fight to get the most influence we can, often not noticing the movement of God’s Spirit while we’re busy arguing over who’s the best. When we do so, we are often taking credit that belongs to God. He is the one who created us. He is the one who gifts us with talents and skills, but even more so, He empowers those skills and talents. So, often the credit we try to claim is truly Gods.

3. Jesus told the disciples that the one who serves is the one who is the greatest (vv. 26-27)

I bet they did a double take on that one. You see, Jesus knew he was about to suffer, and he washed the feet of his disciples (see John 13). He didn’t concern himself with worry over what was ahead. He did not refuse to wash Judas’s feet. Instead, he knelt and washed the dirty, stinky feet of all of his disciples.

Jesus demonstrated by example that true greatness is found in serving others, even when that requires doing an unpleasant task.

I have recently be re-reading the book Christy. The TV series was cute, but the book is really good and has some great spiritual applications. I am currently about to finish the book and Christy is in the midst of a Typhoid epidemic. She finds herself taking care of a teenage boy (Lundy) that has been an absolute nightmare to work with. She is up all night spoon feeding him every half hour, he has diarrhea and she has to bath and wash him after each episode. She has to clean his tongue of the black fuzz that develops as part of this disease.

Christy had been raised in a family with money and these are tasks she never had expected to find herself doing. She begins to realize that she did not come to Cutter Gap, TN for reasons of compassion, but to make herself feel righteous. However, as she has worked with these impoverished children under difficult circumstances and now, serving as nursemaid to them in this horrific epidemic, she finally has come to truly love them. She realizes that serving others has changed her and she has come to truly love others, even the Lundy’s in the world.

In this account about the disciples’ lack of humility in Luke stands in sharp contrast with Jesus’s humility in John. He was preparing to offer himself up as a sacrifice while they argued about who was better. Even so, he knelt and served them by washing their feet.

We are supposed to follow Jesus’s example. I am so pleased to say I have seen many such loving acts of service among you. I have seen people show up without being asked to shovel snow off sidewalks. I have seen you offer funds and labor to get widows taken care of when appliances go out, or some home repair is needed. Our compassionate ministry fund is doing well, thanks to our yard sales but also thanks to many who just contribute funds to it from time to time.

You have also been very generous with me as your pastor. You have been faithful to see to my needs and provide service when needed. When I am sick, I often have someone call to see if I need anything. Each time you do, you are following Christ’s example.

Conclusion

During this last meal, Jesus instituted the sacrament of Communion. The bread and the cup are things we receive with thanksgiving. They’re a free gift, given to us by Christ, though we don’t deserve them. They aren’t merely a gift to nourish us for the moment; they offer us new life in Christ. We receive this new life by faith, finding release from the grip of sin and death. If you are reading the Lent devotional, he will talk more on this, however, for those of you not reading it, it is important to understand this. In the faith, we often talk about the remission of our sins. Remission means “release.” It is the same as the canceling of a debt. Satan holds the papers on us for our debt. However, after Jesus death and resurrection, the debt was paid in full for any willing to accept it. Our account has been cleared and are released from Satan’s power. Jesus offers us freedom from our debt. We just need to place our faith in Him, then we follow Him so we do not get back into debt to Satan again.

When we take Communion, we’re called to humble ourselves as a reminder that when we approach the Table with our brothers and sisters in Christ, we’re not meant to see one an-other as competition but as teammates in God’s kingdom. We serve alongside, not against. Not only are we standing side by side with our brothers and sisters in Christ, but alongside Christ and the Father as well. We are joint heirs with Christ, receiving His inheritance with Him. We are family and teammates. Not just subjects of the kingdom, but heirs of the kingdom.

You have a choice today. Will you humble yourself to go where God is leading? Will you stoop down to the floor, pick up a rag, and wash the feet (whether literally or metaphorically) of someone else? Or will you, like the disciples that day, puff yourself up and jockey for position?

Jesus is clear in his example of what we’re supposed to do and who we’re supposed to be. Let us be faithful in imitating him.

Communion

As you entered this morning, you should have received your Communion elements. Communion is not to be taken lightly. Anyone who has received Jesus as their Lord and Savior are welcome to partake of this Communion. If you for any reason, chose not to take of this supper, you will not be looked down upon. The church is a place for people to come and learn and explore the idea of Christ. We welcome you and do not want you to feel under a microscope. However, for those who do wish to receive Communion today. Please take your elements in hand and hold them as we pray.

Precious Father and Blessed Savior, we thank you for all you prepared ahead of time, that we may be saved from our sins. We hold now in our hands, the elements which commemorate Jesus broken body and shed blood. We thank You for the sacrifice You made. We ask your blessing now upon these elements as we prepare to take them. We do this in honor of You both. Amen.

Now, I am going to allow a moment of silence. Take a moment to talk to the Father in preparation for receiving this Communion.

Communion:

It was a new institution Christ began that night. For the last time, the disciples were receiving the old institution of Passover, but come the next day, the final Passover lamb would be slain.

Allow me to share His Words once again and at the appropriate moment, we will take the bread and cup together.

Luke 22:14–19 NIV

14 When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. 15 And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.” 17 After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. 18 For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” 19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

Take now the bread and eat it and be thankful.

Luke 22:20 NIV

20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

Take now the cup and drink it, acknowledging that His blood paid the price for your sins and be thankful.

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